Annie’s Joins The Fight For Better School Lunches

get healthy living updates

In early 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed long-overdue upgrades to the nutrition standards for meals served through the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

The proposed changes to school meal standards would add more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat milk to school meals and would require schools to limit the levels of saturated fat, sodium, calories, and trans-fats served to students.

The USDA is asking for input on the proposed rule during a public comment period that ends April 13th, 2011. Now through April 11th, Annie’s is asking kids, parents and schools to respond to the USDA’s recent call for a dramatic change in school lunches by sharing letters and pictures of support through the Root 4 Kids program.

Annie’s Root 4 Kids initiative seeks to inspire kids to dig and plant more veggies, and is requesting letters and pictures be uploaded at www.Root4Kids.com/share-letters, where all relevant submissions will be featured. Letters can also be submitted by mail. Following the campaign, Annie’s will package all stories, letters and pictures and submit them to the USDA with its own letter of support.

“Annie’s wants to show a tremendous amount of enthusiasm from people nationwide who, like us, are thankful the USDA has taken action to help alleviate childhood obesity,” said Sarah Bird, Annie’s SVP of Marketing. “Through our Root 4 Kids program, we hope to capture heartfelt and shareable letters and stories from kids, families and schools that support eating more real food.”

Annie’s launched Root 4 Kids in partnership with the National Farm to School Network to inspire 1 million kids to dig and plant new veggies through harvest 2011. Caring adults should sign up to “Root 4 Kids” at http://root4kids.com/join/ and commit to helping at least one child in their life dig or plant a new veggie.

have you shared this story yet?

go ahead, give it a little love

share story:

Beth is a freelance writer and editor living in the Rocky Mountain West. So far, Beth has lived in or near three major U.S. mountain ranges, and is passionate about protecting the important ecosystems they represent. Follow Beth on Twitter as @ecosphericblog or check out her blog.

I remember the lunches at my highschool. There was a thing called 'The Cookie Bar', which was basically a bar of fatty cookie dough partially baked. Cost $2.50 a slice and was served in three layers of to-go-fries bucket cardboard because the grease from the cookie would soak right through the first two layers (!!!) in a matter of minutes.
I won't deny that I ate my fair share of that, but there's no way I'd go back to eating that sort of junk.
Recently I heard my school's reformed its cafeteria, and has included juice/milk vending machines and gotten rid of the legendary cookie of death.

A suggestion, the cardboard that some (i have no idea if it is Annies too) food containers have mineral oil from newspapers in it - just saying so you are aware about picking healthy containers too (is their one, I dont know, but lets be aware of a challenge in this too)

not sure how accurate the link is:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/218487.php